Thanks, Joe Wilson (No Lie!)

Like 99% of the American populace, I’d never heard of Rep. Joe Wilson before his now famous outburst. But after reading a few articles on the internet about him I realize I owe him a debt of gratitude.
Joe is a cracker from South Carolina who isn’t actually a Joe at all. He’s an Addison, and like many people from South Carolina Addison Graves Wilson Sr. seems fixated on an era that doesn’t exist anywhere but in the minds of his neighbors and him. The era is one when African American citizens showed deference to white people, acted like they enjoyed working in the homes of white people, and had no rights to vote, go to the local school or even grab a sandwich at the soda shop downtown.
A couple of years ago my daughter was considering two out of state employment opportunities. She visited Columbia, South Carolina and Denver, Colorado to get a sense of not only the job but also the culture.
During the ensuing family discussion of the pros and cons of each, I had to tell her that if she moved to South Carolina I’d be hard pressed to visit her. South Carolina didn’t make my list of a million places to visit before I die.
She was incredulous. How could I be so arbitrary? I explained that it wasn’t just South Carolina, but most of the confederate states missed inclusion on my list. South Carolina stood out because of their insistence on flying a flag at the state capitol from a war that ended 150 years ago.
Germany ditched the Swastika flag, Japan got rid of the Rising Sun but the confederate flag officially flies in Columbia.
Much of the credit must go to Addison Wilson who, as a proud member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans was one of only seven (all Republican) Senators who voted to continue to fly the confederate flag on the capitol roof in 2000. However, the compromise to fly the flag on the capitol grounds did little to mollify this Son of whatever.
Prior to that, Addison Wilson had served as a page for the 1948 Segregationist party’s presidential nominee, Strom Thurmond when Thurmond served in the U.S. Senate. After Thurmond’s death in 2003 Addison was shocked when an African American woman named Essie Mae Washington-Williams came forward with the news that Thurmond had supported her mother and her after impregnating her then 16 year old mother.
Addison was distraught. He called the revelation “unseemly” and wondered aloud why Ms. Washington-Williams hadn’t kept the news to herself.
Addison, like Nixon and G. W. Bush, believes that actions have no meaning, that the illusion constructed around the action is all that’s important.
Addison’s outburst came during a speech on health care reform by President Obama. In fact, before Addison converted his campaign website into a plea for contributions, it headlined “JOE WILSON IS PASSIONATE ABOUT STOPPING GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE!” Like so many other confused people, however, Addison forgets that his entire family is covered, at no charge, by TRICARE, a government run health care program for some servicemen and veterans. He calls TRICARE “world class care”.
And to prove that only faux aristocracy like him deserves free “world class” care, Addison has repeatedly voted not to include all reservists and National Guard members in TRICARE eligibility.
Wilson claims his outburst was spontaneous. I suppose maybe it was. He sat there being lectured by a black man, who happens to be the President of the United States of America, and just couldn’t take it any more. He needed to let people, especially his South Carolina constituents, know that he would not civilly listen to this uppity black.
Addison’s outburst was intended to show those people whose self worth is based solely on their skin color that the old southern biases are alive and well in Columbia.
For that I thank him. My daughter, still in Denver, now understands why there are parts of this great country I’ll never visit or pass through.
I prefer looking to the future and the possibilities it holds to wallowing around in regret and recrimination over a war that ended 150 years ago and a culture that’s best days are behind it but still flatters itself by dehumanizing others.